74 BRITISH BIRDS' NESTS. 



sounding when uttered by the female, and harsh 

 and low when by the male. Local and other names : 

 Mallard, Stock Duck, Common Wild Duck. Sits 

 closely, and covers over her eggs when leaving her 

 nest voluntarily. 



DUNLIN. 



Description of Parent Birds. — Leugth about eight 

 inches. Beak rather long, nearly straight, and 

 black. Irides brown. Crown and iipper parts 

 reddish-brown, streaked on the head and back of 

 neck with dusky-black, and each feather on the 

 back being black in the centre. Wing-coverts 

 greyish-brown edged with light grey ; quills dusky- 

 black, inclining to brown on some of the lesser, 

 which are greyish-white on tile edges of the outer 

 webs. Upper tail-coverts white, quills ashy-brown 

 edged with grey, excepting the two centre feathers, 

 which are longer tlian the rest and dusky-brow^n. 

 Chin white, cheeks, throat, and sides of neck and 

 breast whitish, streaked with dusky-black ; belly 

 and under - parts white. Legs, toes, and claws 

 dusky-black, slightly tinted with green. 



The female differs little from the male, but is, 

 as a rule, slightly larger. 



Situation and Localitij. — On the ground, well 

 hidden by a tuft of ling, heather, or tussock of 

 coarse grass, in boggy, marshy, tarn-besprinkled 

 parts of moors and heaths in the north and ex- 

 treme west of England ; also in Scotland and Ire- 

 land. Our illustrations are from photographs taken 

 on the Westmoreland hills, between Shunner Fell 

 and Nine Standards. 



Materials. — A few straws or bents forming a 



